i know i'm one of the only people on ilx who watches *how i met your mother* on a regular basis, but did anyone else see the robin sparkles episode? where robin didn't want people to know that she had

really liked marshall's elaborate fantasy sequence from last week's episode

Barack Obama Jr.?

that whole fantasy thing was a king of queens episode, although it was way funnier on himym of course.

I want a full version of the cat funeral song.

i couldn't watch this tonight! will have to watch tomorrow on the interweb.

that cat funeral song was indeed tops

http://www.itwasthebestnightever.com/

Don't usually like or regularly watch this show, but cat funeral song won me over truly, madly, deeply. Meow meow backups FTW.

ridic dope episode imo

seemed like a burlesque of itself last night, with lots of screaming and out-of-character plot-required mood swings. some decent set pieces but when old-timey barney avoided the hand of a woman with a beard i saw a shark in the water. but that's season 5 of anything for you.

enjoying the post-natal breast display, though

This us still as good as ever imo, it's always skirted with lameness and had runs of poor episodes but besides the season opener (which always seem to be weak with this show, remarkably), it's all been pretty strong and think this was the best so far this series

I want a full version of the cat funeral song.

^^^ this

Loved that Barney and Ted have switched personalities to Barney's horror. I don't see any shark jumping; the poems follow on from things like the Bro Code origins, Marshall and Lily have always been that way, Marshall has previously got addicted to stupid things (charts!) although I wished they could fit in an intervention, Barney certainly has previous experience of wanting his friends around (going to go get Lilly in SF)... all adds up to a 'normal' How I Met Your Mother episode.

A great one at that. Cat Funeral song was the best.

let's never say "shark" on any thread about a current TV show ever again please please please

except like Shark Week or something, that would make things quite difficult

Nuno Bettencourt!

this was a good one, except my digital reception kept cutting out on punchlines

didn't love this one

i think it was a zero on the LOL meter

i guess it was more O_O than lol

i know humor's a very subjective thing and all but...i l'd my ao last night the same way i have w/ most other episodes of the show

my lol meter must be broken

because i thought curb your enthusiasm was pretty atrocious on sunday as well

i know what you mean, sometimes i'm just in a weird mood and can't laugh at anything, not that i'm feeling mad or humorless just nothing hits me like that for a while

too many sardines

let's never say "shark" on any thread about a current TV show ever again please please please

dude it was barney in old-timey clothes speaking in rhyme about an ugly woman played by a man in a dress. don't blame the effect for the cause.

dude what fucking show are you watching that's never involved goofy costumes and/or fantasy sequences involving Barney.

it was a particularly "STFU TV show!" type moment

well, YMMV, it wasn't the greatest gag or anything, but i feel you'd only be able to strenuously object to it if you've conveniently missed every episode where Barney dresses like a lesbian or elderly Barney from the future, floats over NYC in a nightshirt, has long hair and a soul patch in a flashback, etc.?

It's not like it was a scene bizarrely out of keeping with the rest of the series.

exactly... this show isn't quite like Scrubs or Family Guy with the absurd cutaways but imo the occasional low brow/high concept gags are a pretty big part of its DNA

sorry if you didn't think it was retarded

and it was bizarrely out of keeping with the rest of the series in that it sucked and wasn't funny.

i didn't have a problem with olde tyme barney but it did seem like a weaker episode

it really felt like gave the cast uppers and went "goofy web bait? check. new catchphrase? check. goofy cutaway? check. song montage? check."

i agree with croup

this show treads a fine line between clever/stupid and this episode was just stupid

i dunno man, i have no problem w/ being able to say whether an episode was good or bad, but i think "jump the shark," aside from being a lame cliche, is a really noxious concept to bring up w/ a currently running show (whereas it might be at least useful when talking about a cancelled or irredeemably over the hill show), like you'd rather play celebrity dead pool about when to proclaim you've over it and sneer at other viewers who aren't than just watch the show and call it as you see it.

I liked Ted's tweed.

"jump the shark" is an awesome cliche! though I think it's most worthwhile in trying to capture when a show totally lost what made it worthwhile (what did Fonz leaping over a shark to dramatic music while his friends cheered have to do in the slightest with '50s nostalgia or funny?) rather than simply when a passed its prime. it's kind of glorious when a show is long enough for the worm to turn to that extreme. Mother's best at being a post-Arrested Development Friends and Barney's fantasy sequence was your standard late-in-the-game sitcom bullshit. i'm definitely not over the show, but when the moment comes it will probably involve an intelligence-free Barney fantasy sequence. and since when did you have a problem with sneering?

lots of sitcoms have done full-on fantasy episodes that have been cheesy as hell, but what happened last night was like 90 seconds of the episode

which is why i said "i saw a shark in the water" rather than "omg shark jumped never watching again"

I think it would have been better if it was just them reading the poems and not having the cut-aways but it didn't exactly ruin the episode, it was just a badly done joke. All sitcoms have them occasionally (and unfortunately.)

::shrugs:: invoking a cliche with a slight variation is still invoking it

god forbid

if you really have a problem with people playing pointless parlor games like this, you really must hate a show where they're constantly giving names like "pull a murtaugh" to common moments in life

that comparison was completely arbi....(wait for it)...trary

and it was bizarrely out of keeping with the rest of the series in that it sucked and wasn't funny

pretty sure characters telling elaborate exaggerated stories is in keeping w/the spirit of this show u dumb fuk and the whole episode was str8 classic sitcom jokes - if u want to laugh @ punchlineless moments of social awkwardness or w/e then gtfo of a cbs sitcom thread - like being half retarded isnt totally the point

u dum fuq

u dum fuq

this would be an awesome license plate

i don't mind the long exaggerated stories, BUT PLEASE MAKE IT CLEVER

the episode with ted teaching barney ROBIN 101--clever